Repeatedly gaining and losing weight may be linked to increased risk of heart attack, stroke and earlier death in people with pre-existing coronary artery disease, according to a study published Wednesday.

Research from NYU's Langone Medical Center found that people with high weight fluctuations were 136 percent more likely to experience strokes, 117 percent more likely to suffer from heart attacks and 124 percent more likely to die from health complications than those with smaller weight changes.

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"Our findings suggest that we need to be concerned about weight fluctuation in this group that is already at high risk due to coronary disease," said lead study author Sripal Bangalore, MD, director of the cardiovascular outcomes group in the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center.

Subjects in the high fluctuation group experienced weight changes around 8.6 pounds, and those in the low fluctuation group reported weight changes around two pounds.

Health experts reviewed the data of 9,509 men and women between the ages of 35 and 75 with pre-existing coronary artery disease. The subjects also reported high cholesterol levels, and half were treated with cholesterol-lowering drugs in high doses. They were studied for 4.7 years.

Weight changes were linked to significantly different outcomes in subjects who were overweight or obese at the study's beginning, but not in subjects with normal weights. Participants who showed higher weight fluctuations showed higher cases of newly-diagnosed diabetes, though scientists warned that the result only showed an "association" between weight cycling and "poor outcomes."

Further study is needed.

A 2009 study showed that yo-yo dieting could also lead to an increase of inflammation and the body's storage of adipose tissue. Fifty-five percent of overweight or obese women who lost 10 percent of their overall body weight regained it within four years, while 93 percent of men and 95 percent of women were unable to maintain weight loss, showing that long-term maintenance is often more difficult than the initial weight loss.